I walked to the bus station for half 6. When I got on the bus it was packed and I was the only westerner. It was so busy that people were sitting in the aisle. The driver asked a guy to move into the aisle so I could sit down. I felt sorry for him but very thankful. When I sat down people around me shook my hand which relaxed me a little. The bus was the size of a school bus, only seating 21 people. After a while the driver had managed to fit 37 people on board. I was pretty comfy at the back. They actually Sellotaped peoples luggage to the roof. I sat next to a grandad of a family, some of which were on the bus. He didn't speak English and my Vietnamese is just as bad. It didn't really matter. I got my lonely planet guide out and we showed each other where we had both been. The lights went out so he got his torch out so we could carry on our conversation. When we finished talking he decided to get some sleep and decided my shoulder would make a comfy pillow. After some gentle pushing (which didn't work) and some of my elbow in his face he thought better of it and moved.

I literally had no sleep on that bus but was weirdly contempt just sitting there listening to music, for the first time on the trip I felt really alone and I liked it. Stopping off in little villages trying to communicate with locals felt like one of the reasons why I went away.

When we got to the bus station the driver spoke to the next bus driver. He put my bags on top of the roof. I got in, there were 2 western people on board. Ludivine, a French chick and an old guy from Switzerland. I literally planned nothing when I got to Laos. Not even the city I was arriving in. I wanted to see who'd I'd meet and what would happen.

I sat next to Ludivine the entire way chatting. She'd lives in Nepal and works in an orphanage??!? She has been traveling for a year on and off so we had plenty to talk about. A couple of German girls got on as well so plenty of people to talk to. It took 3 hours to get to the Laos border. It was in the mountains so had some awesome views. The country crossing was painless and took all of half an hour.

On the Laos side we picked up some local people. The bus turned in to a party bus, with the driver being the ring leader, throwing some crazy shapes to Vietnamese music while driving some hazardous mountain roads.